Cristo: Tell It on the Mountain!
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He ordered them not to leave Jerusalem, but to wait there. – Acts 1:4 (NRSV)
“Mom, we’re going to get married this summer,” she stated in March. Our daughter said these words gently because she knew they were difficult ones for me and the rest of her family to hear. It wasn’t that we thought her future husband to be a bad choice, in fact he seemed a very fine young man indeed. A Christian he was, and from a strong Christian family. He held a position of responsibility in his place of work, but he was from Europe and he worked and lived in Asia. Our beloved daughter would soon live two continents and an ocean away from us – seemingly forever. It felt like a life sentence of sorts. And yet, who were we to tell our legal adult child what she could and couldn’t do? If we had said, “No,” she would have honored that. If we had said, “Wait,” she would have honored that as well and I now believe that to have been the wisest choice. But we hesitated to give strong directives because the choice was hers to make.
We were not Catholic at that time. Had we been, the wisdom of holy Mother Church would have provided helpful guidelines, involving a six-month waiting period plus pastoral counseling between engagement and marriage.
Our daughter did get married that summer and now lives overseas with her husband and children. We visit her annually. And yet, I realize now how a six-month waiting period would have helped all of us in a time of such dramatic change. We all would have benefitted from the wisdom of holy Mother Church.
Lord, thank you for wise insight established by the Church. Help us to trust her guidelines, even at those times when we can’t see the wisdom therein.
Consider: What guideline of the Catholic church seems especially wise to you?
View Lisa Livezey's weekly 1-minute photo devotions at lisalivezey.com/olivetree
Lisa Livezey writes from Pennsylvania where she found her way to Rome via the Anglican Ordinariate. She is the author of Minding Mom: A Caregiver's Devotional Story (En Route Publishing) and contributes to the National Catholic Register, Guideposts books and devotionals, and more. Her weekly photo devotions found at lisalivezey.com/olivetree are viewed worldwide and utilized by Visio Divina prayer groups. Lisa is a wife, mom, and grandma, volunteers in church and civic settings, and serves on the executive team at Heart of the Father Ministries. She credits her husband with giving her name alliteration and sometimes on summer weekends can be spotted sailing the Chesapeake Bay alongside her spouse.
